


Mistletoe and Mixed Feelings

by GlarpNinja



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Christmas, F/M, Fake Dating, Female pronouns for Pidge, Friends to Lovers, like seriously teeth rotting fluff, nuclear fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-22
Updated: 2018-12-02
Packaged: 2019-08-27 12:19:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 6,078
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16702441
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GlarpNinja/pseuds/GlarpNinja
Summary: After consistent pressing questions from his family, Lance McClain accidentally lies and says that he has a girlfriend after spending all those years in space (when in reality he's desperately single). After spinning the believable lie that his fellow Paladin, Pidge Gunderson is his girlfriend, Lance now has to back up this fib by bringing the Paladin in question to the McClain family dinner.





	1. Chapter 1

Christmas was always Lance’s favorite time of year, and after all that time in space, he was more than eager to celebrate it this year, now that he was back on earth and everything was fairly calm… But then came all the usual questions that his mother would pepper him with as they prepared all the food for their annual christmas family dinner. Chief among them: “Do you have a girlfriend?” not to mention the fact that Rachel, Veronica AND Luis decided to gang up on him about this particular subject. His first mistake was blurting out yes to try and shut them up. As if that answer would shut them up. Not only was Veronica asking if it was Allura, but Rachel and Luis were chanting “PICS! PICS! PICS!” in the background. Great. Upon pulling out his phone, he saw that his most recent pic (and the pic that made it look like he had a girlfriend the most) that he had with a girl was a picture of him and Pidge holding up their miniatures when they played Monsters and Mana.

“There! I’m dating Pidge! See? Happy now?”

His mother was the first to reply. 

“Yes. Will we see her for the family dinner?”

“Uh… Yeah!”

‘Well, shit. Lance McClain, this is quite the hole you’ve dug for yourself.’ He thought to himself

“Great! We’ll set aside a seat for her on friday.”

It was at that point the panic set in. That’s two days from now! He was supposed to bring Pidge to the family dinner and make it look believable to not just his parents and siblings but his aunts, uncles and his cousins? How in the fuck was he supposed to accomplish that in two days?

“Yeah, that’s great! Uh… Luis, can you get the… turkey stuffing ready for me? I need to go check in on the team.”

“Uh.. sure.” Luis said as he began doing just that.

Lance proceeded to quickly exit the room in a panic and call the woman in question: Pidge.

“Lance? What do you need, buddy?” Pidge asked

“Yeah, uh… bit of an emergency, here, Pidgey. I need a girlfriend for Friday.” Lance replied, panic clear in his voice.

“Don’t you have a Tinder?” Pidge asked, semi-sarcastically, not aware of the gravity of Lance's situation.

“That’s the thing, Pidgey. I may or may not have told my parents that we’re dating.”

“Why in the flying fuck would you do that?”

“I was under duress, Katie. Can you help me out? You still owe me for getting you to the secret level on Killbot Phantasm.”

“Fine. I’ll be your fake girlfriend for Friday. Damn you for being so good at Killbot Phantasm.”

“You wouldn't have 100% without me. Thing is, I really need this to be believable. Can I see you later tonight?”

“Uhh… problem with that.”

“Why?”

“Because MY family dinner is later tonight.”

“Oh! I’ll swing by! It’ll be our dress rehearsal!”

“Are you absolutely sure that’s a good idea?”

“Positive.”

“Fine. Dinner’s at 7.”

“I’ll be there… Katie Kat.” Lance said with a smug grin.

Pidge nearly gagged “Oh god. We’ll need to talk about pet names when you get here.”

“Oh, come on! It’s cute and endearing!”

“Whatever. I’ll see you later.”

“Will do! Bye.” Lance said as he hung up.

And then Lance realized that now he now had to convince two families that he was dating Pidge. Not only that, but also stare down the man he nearly killed for having a crush on Allura, who was in Lance's defence is one of the prettiest girls in the universe and say that he's dating his sister. This whole facade just got a whole lot harder, and the hole Lance had dug for himself had just gotten a whole lot deeper. It would be at this point Lance would begin praying for a miracle to happen so that both families would believe that they were dating. 

But Lance had more pressing issues. Like what he'd wear to the Holt family dinner.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote this drunk. bye.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After agreeing to be "boyfriend" and "girlfriend", Lance and Pidge now have to see how they fare when Lance pays a visit to Pidge's place for a meet the parents Christmas Dinner. 
> 
> This can only go well.

After having a mini panic attack over the fact that he had to make this whole “dating Pidge” thing seem believable, a wild, crazy thought entered Lance’s mind. _Maybe this won’t be so bad. Or even that difficult for that matter We’re already pretty ride or die after beating King Lazarus in Killbot Phantasm together. Not to mention… She’s pretty cute._ Lance thought to himself before snapping out of whatever was going on in his head. Lance opened the door to his closet. _Wait, what the hell am I supposed to wear?_ He wondered to himself before calling Pidge once again.

“What is it, _sweetie?”_ Pidge said, with a faux sincerity.

“Well, _Honeybunches,_ You never told me what to wear to this Christmas dinner. Formal? Semi-formal? Uniform?” Lance asked, matching Pidge’s tone.  
  
“Why the hell would we wear our uniforms to family dinner?”  
  
“I dunno.”  
  
“You’re an idiot. Semi-formal.” Pidge gave a chuckle at the hilarity of wearing uniforms to Christmas dinner.  
  
“I’m _your_ idiot now. Semi-formal it is. See you later, Katie.”  
  
“See you later.”

Lance put on his best christmas-themed T-shirt and wore a blazer over it. He put on matching trousers and a pair of red chuck taylors and began combing his hair in the bathroom when he was confronted by Veronica.

“So… Pidge, eh?”  
  
“Yeah. What about it?”  
  
Veronica lightly hit him in the arm. “Oh, don’t ‘what about it?’ me, Lance! Tell me everything!”

“Don’t think that ambushing me in the bathroom is gonna get you anything. Besides I got places to be.”  
  
“Where are you going?”  
  
“Pidge’s place.”  
  
“Awww, that’s adorable! If that’s the case…” Veronica said, reaching into her pocket “Catch!”

Lance managed to catch the incoming projectile from Veronica and opened his hand to reveal… a condom. “Really?” Lance asked his older sister, who seriously just threw him a condom. 

“I mean… you’re going over there, right?”  
  
“For a Christmas dinner!” 

“Well… I mean…”  
  
“Veronica!” Lance shouted in shock. “Oh my god, I’m leaving.”

“Have fun!”

Lance got into his car and started driving. He contemplated the idea of being in a relationship with Pidge and how it _Wouldn’t be so bad. Or so different for that matter. Same amount of video games and hanging out, just with more kissing and cuddling which isn’t a bad thing._ He had been to Pidge’s before, so he knew the address. He was a 20 minute drive away from Pidge’s place which as far as relationships (as fake as they may be) isn’t that bad of a drive. But Lance made one stop over at the flower shop, buying a rose for his (not actual) girlfriend, Pidge (I mean flowers are a romantic enough gesture to make this relationship seem legit, right?) and afterwards, Lance had gotten to Pidge’s house in no time.

Thankfully, Pidge was the one to answer the door… not so thankfully, Matt also happened to be by the door.

“Lance! What brings you here?” Matt asked Lance, who just so happened to be sweating bullets at this point.

At this point, Pidge interjected. “Oh, Lance is joining our Christmas dinner.”  
  
“This is because…?” Matt asked, as he turned towards his little sister as Lance stood there awkwardly, rose behind his back.  
  
“...He’s my… boyfriend. We’re… dating.”  Pidge told Matt.

“Your WHAT?! Since when!?”

It was at this point Lance cut in, handing Pidge the rose. “Pretty recently, actually. We’ve been keeping it a secret until we were comfortable with telling everybody.”  
  
“If it’s any consolation, I was planning on telling you, it’s just.. uh... Lance really wanted to come to this family dinner and surprise anyone.” Pidge told her older brother, trying her best to hide the fact that she’s lying through her teeth. Joining the Holt Christmas dinner was about as awkward as Lance expected from the moment he sat down. He braced himself for all the usual “meet the parents” questions (not to mention having to stand the heat emanating off of Matt, who was still probably salty about the whole Allura thing.) At least Colleen’s cooking wasn’t bad.

“So, Lance…” Colleen began.

Oh, here we go. It was back to sweating bullets for Lance. He could hear the questions already. How did they actually meet? Weren’t you dating the princess? What was the first date like?

“Single Modulation or Double Modulation?” Sam cut in, asking Lance.

_What?_  

“Sam.” Colleen said, clearly unimpressed that her husband is using Katie’s new boyfriend to fuel an old argument that he still had not let go of.  
  
“What? I just want to know where Katie’s new boyfriend stands on the matter.”  
  
“Uh…” Lance managed to say while giving Pidge a look of “god in heaven please help me”

“Lance isn’t much of a coder, actually. That’s my role.” Pidge said, patting Lance on the back.  
  
“Oh, really? Then what’s your role on the team aside from piloting the red lion?” Sam asked.

Wow, okay, bit condescending there, but the man asked so… “I’m the…” Lance trailed off trying to rack his brain thinking of what he did that would even mildly impress Pidge’s parents. “...Combat strategist. I ...help Shiro by… uh... analyzing Galran battle formations and… uh… developing counterformations that we can do in our lions to best combat them.”

“Oh, that’s very impressive! It takes a very analytical mind to do such a thing, and judging by your success rate, i’d wager you are very good at what you do.” Sam told him, commending him on his efforts.

“Yeah! He’s really good at combat analysis. Shiro asks for his advice frequently. I don’t blame Shiro, since Lance has a really good eye for it.”  Pidge said, shovelling more mashed potatoes into her mouth.

“It seems to me that our Katie thinks very highly of you. What do you two like to do for fun?”  
  
Oh. That’s one hell of a loaded question. Lance thought to himself. “We… play video games.” He told him

“...and cuddle. And watch Netflix. Lance is a good cuddler.” Pidge added. Good save.

“Aw, that’s sweet.” Sam remarked.

The dinner continued to go well, and Lance had at least a passable answer to most of their questions. It was still a tiny bit awkward, but that’s how most family dinners are. But, the Holt family seemed to like Lance. In fact, Matt was even starting to kind of warm to the idea that Lance is dating his sister. It was at that point that disaster struck. As they were talking, Pidge’s dog, Bae Bae began sniffing around Lance, and ended up catching the scent of the condom that Veronica had given him earlier. This could only end well as Matt was sitting directly beside him, who proceeded to swipe the contraceptive that was indeed peeking out of Lance’s pocket.

“And what, pray tell, did you plan on using this for?” Matt asked Lance as he held up the condom for the whole family to see.

Pidge gave a look of disbelief. Colleen gave a loud gasp. “Lance!”

“You, young man, have some explaining to do.” Colleen told Lance, genuinely scaring the hell out of him.  
  
“I… uh...” Lance tried desperately to calm the situation down while simultaneously hoping the earth would open up and swallow him whole. This was the worst case scenario. Pidge had no idea about the condom so she had no answer and it just about looked like Lance was about to die at the hands of an angry housewife.

“Colleen. I’m sure he’s just being cautious with our Katie. Quite smart of you to bring protection, Mr. McClain. Can’t have you two lovebirds giving us grandchildren too soon, right?” Sam told Lance, with a smile and a hearty chuckle.

“Right!” Lance managed to say.

Colleen seemed to soften her stance and calm down. Matt still looked sceptical, but Pidge gave Lance a look of “Oh thank god.” and both Pidge and Lance gave a sigh of relief. Thank goodness for Samuel Holt, who quickly became Lance’s favorite person from this point forward (that is, his favorite person aside from his family and Pidge, as much as he’s unwilling to admit.)  
  
Lance and Pidge quickly finished their food soon after that whole ordeal. While this wasn’t Lance’s worst “meet the parents” he’d ever been to, in Lance’s mind, it was still up there in terms of general disasters that happened in front of a cute girl and the rest of her family.

After the dinner ended, Pidge looked towards Lance from across the table.

“Sweetie?” Pidge said. Lance was by no means a total dumbass but it did take him a second to piece together the fact that ‘Sweetie’ was indeed referring to...him.

“Yes, Katie Kat?” Lance managed to grin as Pidge tried her best not to gag or strangle him across the table for giving her such a grossly cute nickname 

“Can I see you upstairs? I need to talk to you about… stuff.”  
  
“Sure.”  _This certainly wasn't her best idea_ Lance thought to herself as Pidge urged Lance to come upstairs after the whole condom fiasco.  
  
It was at this point, Matt grabbed Lance by the blazer and whispered in his ear. “If you try anything with my little sister, I’ll kill you. Got that?”

“Got it.” Lance told Matt. 

Matt and the rest of the Holts seemed to have bought the whole thing, what with Matt casually threatening to kill Lance if he tried anything, and the Holt family are by absolutely no means gullible or flat out idiots.... Maybe this whole fake dating thing won’t be so difficult.

_Just don't get too comfortable._ Lance told himself.

_The worst is yet to come._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh god in heaven what have i created


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the whole fiasco during dinner with the Holts, Lance and Pidge have a talk upstairs in her room.

Lance entered Pidge’s room and saw that she was sat criss-crossed on her bed. Lance sat down directly across from he wondering what this whole thing was about. The dinner went sort of well, aside from _that_ whole ordeal with the condom, but the Holts seemed to have bought it, _right_? Does Pidge not want to do this anymore?   
  
“You know, asking me to meet you in your room after Matt found a condom in my pocket isn’t your best idea” Lance told her

“Yeah, bad call in hindsight. What were you doing with that condom, anyway?”  
  
“Veronica was teasing me with it. For whatever reason, I kept it in my pocket.” 

“Oh. Okay. But we do need to talk about this whole fake dating thing...”  
  
“Okay… what’s up?”   
  
“I feel like… we need to set up some rules.”   
  
“Sounds good. What do you got in mind?”   
  
“Firstly, No kissing. Not that i’m completely against the idea, it’s just I’m not sure i’m comfortable with it.”   
  
“Fair enough.”   
  
“Secondly, not too much PDA in general?”   
  
“Okay, but there should be enough PDA to make it believable?”   
  
“Sounds good. And finally… let’s try not to catch feelings. You know, just so things don’t get… too complicated between us…?”   
  
Lance hesitated for a second. That last rule might be kind of difficult considering a part of him is pretty sure he’s halfway there.

“Yeah. Great. Good. Sounds good. No… no catching feelings. Got it.”

They stared at each other for a few seconds before they heard a knock at Pidge’s door. Pidge quickly ducked under her covers and pulled Lance along with her. She took off her glasses, ruffled her hair somewhat and pulled Lance’s arms and body into a configuration that somewhat resembled “cuddling”

 Lance realized what Pidge was doing and also did his best to make it look like they were actually cuddling.

“Come in!” Pidge called out as Colleen walked into her room.

“Sorry if I’m interrupting you two, I was just wondering if Lance was staying the night.”

Lance looked at Pidge for a few seconds before Pidge spoke on his behalf “Uh… Yeah! Lance is staying the night, isn’t that right, sweetie?” Pidge said, looking to Lance

“Uh, Yeah! I’ll be staying the night.” Lance reaffirmed with the Green Paladin’s mother.

“Oh! Okay, lovely. You two have fun. But not too much fun, of course!” Colleen told the two. Colleen exited the room, leaving Lance and Pidge in privacy. There was a pause between the two.

“Okay… why exactly am I staying over?”

“Well… I figured if you stayed the night then we’d have more time to practice being believable to your family, right?”

“Yeah, that actually sounds like a great idea. We can use the time to get to know each other a little better.”   
  
“Come on, Lance, you know plenty about me.”   
  
“I know you’re good with computers. I know you… like video games. I know you like peanut butter cookies, and peanut butter, but not regular peanuts, since they make your mouth really dry. That’s all I really know about you on a personal level.”   
  
“Oh.”   
  
“Yeah. Pretty lacking in that whole department.”   
  
“Okay, I guess it’s time I shared more about myself with you. You know, since we’re fake dating and all that.”   
  
“Yeah.”

 Pidge adjusted herself, placing her head in the crook of Lance’s neck and placed her hand on his chest.   
  
“My first video game console was an N64. My favorite video game is Ocarina of Time, but Kingdom Hearts comes a close second. I haven’t really dated anyone since Matt left for Kerberos. I always read The Wicked and The Divine at Christmas. It’s my favorite comic book. I can’t cook to save my life. I was taught how to play piano when I was six, A couple years later, I put down that keyboard for a keyboard of a different type. I don’t really drink coffee or tea. I’ve always been more of a Hot Chocolate kind of person...”

Pidge continued to rattle off little tidbits of trivia about her, and every piece of info that Lance got painted a more vivid picture of who Pidge was. For Lance, it was kind of sweet and charming to hear about everything she was into.

 “You haven’t dated anyone since Matt left for Kerberos?” Lance managed to ask.  
  
“I give you all of this info about myself, and that’s all you care about?”   
  
“No, I think it’s all pretty interesting, it’s just that Matt left for Kerberos 5 years ago, Pidge. Even Hunk got a girlfriend in that time. In all that time we spent up in space, no one caught your eye?”

 “There was one, but I hardly think he’d be into someone like me.”  
  
“Well, from what I know about you now, that guy is certainly missing out.”

 “I dunno. I just don’t think i’m his type.”  
  
“Oh well. You seriously can’t cook?”   
  
“Lance, I burn eggs.”   
  
“Seriously?”   
  
“Yeah, I am a disaster in the kitchen.” Pidge laughed.

 “Yeah that’s really wierd to me. My Abuela made it a point for me to be in the kitchen and learn how to cook.”

 “Oh yeah?”  
  
“Yeah. I’m definitely not as good as Hunk, but I’m certainly competent, and try not to bring it up in front of him, since he’s still kinda salty about it, but I did once beat him in a burger making competition, so there’s that.”

“No way.” Pidge sat up in disbelief of what Lance had just said.  
  
“Yes way! My burger recipe blew his recipe out of the water! Hunk actually conceded there are at most 5 things that I cook better than him. Burgers being one of them”   
  
“I’ll have to try one of these burgers, then.”

 “I’ll make you one.”  
  
The two kept talking for about 3 hours, where they both dozed off in Pidge’s bed.

 Pidge awoke to the sound of Lance’s phone ringing. Lance was still asleep. Absentmindedly, Pidge grabbed Lance’s phone and answered.

“Hello?” Pidge asked

 “Oh... that was not the voice I was expecting to hear on the other line. Is this Lance’s _girlfriend_?” The female voice on the other line asked.

 “Uh... yeah. You’re...talking to her. Lance’s… girlfriend.”  
  
“Heya, it’s Rachel, can you put my brother on the phone?”   
  
“Oh! Y-yeah. Gimme a sec.”

She put Lance’s sister on hold before gently shaking Lance awake.

“...hey, beautiful…” Lance said still half asleep and just seeing Pidge in the morning sunlight.  
  
“Uh... Lance?” Pidge said as Lance came to his senses   
  
“Yeah? Wh- What is it?” Lance managed to say, recovering from whatever he just said to his fake girlfriend in his half unconscious state.

“Rachel’s calling.”  
  
“Oh shit.”   
  
Pidge handed Lance his phone as he braced himself for whatever was waiting for him on the other line.   
  
“Morning, sis.”   
  
“I see _someone_ stayed the night at their _girlfriend’s_ place”

“Yeah. I stayed the night. What about it?”  
  
“So… when’s the _wedding?”_   
  
“Shut up. Why are you calling me?”   
  
“We’re going grocery shopping for the family dinner, remember?”   
  
“Right. I’ll be there in like… 30 minutes.”

Lance got up from Pidge’s bed and left for the grocery store. 

 _Well._ Lance thought

 _Here goes nothing._  



	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After spending the night at Pidge's house after the Holt Christmas Dinner, Lance now has to go grocery shopping with his two sisters.

Normally, a trip to the grocery store was no big deal to Lance. Just buy whatever you need to cook, pay for it all and leave. There wasn’t much stress from a trip to the grocery store.

  
Not this time, however. Because not only did he willingly go with Veronica _and_ Rachel, but they both know that he spent the night with the person he told them was his girlfriend. So this grocery trip, flanked by his two sisters who knew he spent the night at Pidge’s place was probably going to be the most stressful grocery store trip he’s ever done.

He pulled up into the parking lot of the grocery store and parked his car, eventually meeting Rachel and Veronica by the entrance of the grocery store.

  
Both had unbelievably smug looks on their faces as Lance walked towards them, and both were giving him a slow clap to really rub in the smugness.

“So…. how did it go? Pretty well, I’d assume, since you _stayed the night_ ” Veronica teased.

“Yeah… It went...great. I had dinner with my girlfriend and her family and we... talked for a while before dozing off.” While Lance was indeed telling the truth, he did leave out the fact that he and Pidge were cuddling the whole time they talked and left out the entire condom fiasco for the sake of not giving either of his sisters a heart attack.

“Aw… that’s cute.” Rachel said.

“Can we just get on with it already?” Lance asked.

“Yeah, but you’re telling us _everything_ .” Veronica said.   
  
“No. You can wait for the family dinner like everyone else when Pidge is actually there.”   
  
Rachel made a pouty face and walked into the grocery store with Lance and Veronica.

Veronica was focused on buying her stuff but would occasionally ask the odd question to Lance, but Rachel, after inadvertantly talking with Pidge on the phone was relentless with the questions.

Not many people know this, but the grocery is a great place to contemplate things. As he tried to concentrate on what he was buying, and while he was being peppered with questions from Rachel and Veronica like “how long have you two been dating?” or “when am I getting a niece or nephew? I’ll spoil them rotten I swear!” Lance started contemplating a bunch of things. Should he buy more vegetables? Is this enough chuck steak and shortrib for the burgers? Should he stick Rachel in the frozen food section?

“What are you planning on making for the dinner when Pidge comes over?” He heard Veronica ask. This was a question he was more than willing to answer.

“I’m making burgers along with my famous Mac and Cheese with Chilli.”

“Yes!” Rachel exclaimed. “My favorite!”  
  
“Yeah, I know, I promised Pidge i’d make her one of my burgers when I told her I beat Hunk in that burger making competition.”   
  
“Awww! That’s so sweet. I know I tease you a lot, Lancey, but I’m so glad that you have a girlfriend. Someone who appreciates you for the amazing guy you are.” Rachel told him   
  
“Thanks, sis. But since Pidge is coming over you have to promise not to eat all the Chilli Mac and Cheese.” Lance told Rachel.

“...I will make no such promises.” Rachel replied.

While they were talking, Lance’s phone rang, and his two sisters gave him a smug look. It was Pidge calling.

“Heya, cutie. What’s up?” Lance answered

“That’s really what you’re going with?” Pidge replied.

“Yeah. It’s this or Katie Kat.” Lance said as he walked out of earshot of his smug, giggly sisters.

“Cutie it is. Anyway, we have a slight… problem.”  
  
“What is it?”   
  
“Well, I told mom and dad that your Christmas party was tomorrow, and also let slip that your aunts and uncles and nieces and nephews were going and wanted to come with me to your place tomorrow.”

Well, things just got a whole lot more stressful. Both the Holt and McClain families in one place. This fake dating thing is going to be hard to keep up with _all_ of them there.

“What?” Lance asked

“Yeah!” Pidge replied  
  
“Let me uh… run it by my sisters… I guess.”   
  
Lance put Pidge on hold.

“Hey, Veronica?”

“What’s up, Lance?”  
  
“Is it cool if Pidge’s family also comes along?”   
  
“Of course! Mama loves having guests over, 3 or 4 more people should be fine.”   
  
“Let me get like an actual headcount, actually.”   
  
“Alright.”   
  
Lance went back to talking to Pidge for said headcount. At the same time trying to figure out how much groceries to buy for not just his extended family, but for the Holts as well.

“So, along with you…”  Lance started

“Mom, Dad and Matt are also coming along.” Pidge told Lance

“Is Bae Bae coming?”

“Should Bae Bae come with us?”  
  
“My nephew really loves dogs.” Lance told her.   
  
“Oh. Then yeah. Bae Bae can come along.”

“Okay. Cool. Party’s at 7, Semi-formal, bring a big appetite, there’s gonna be a lot of food.”

“Sounds good. Okay. Bye.”  
  
“Bye.”   
  
Lance proceeded to hang up on Pidge before turning back to talk to Veronica and Rachel..

“So, how many more people are coming along?” Veronica asked Lance.

“Uh, along with Pidge, her mom, dad and brother plan on coming along. They also plan on bringing their dog.” Lance replied  
  
“Sylvio’s gonna love that.”   
  
“I know. I told them to bring him.”

“Yeah, that’s cool. You’re gonna have to buy more burger meat.”

“That’s no problem. You’re paying right?”  
  
“What do you mean “am I paying?” Don’t you have money, Mr. Red Paladin?”

It was Lance’s turn to finally be smug at his sister. “Just because I’m a defender of the universe doesn’t mean i’m on payroll, Veronica.”

“Fair point. I guess I am paying.”

Veronica proceeded to pay for all of the stuff that she, Lance, and Rachel ended up buying including but not limited to 7 bags of various chips, 15 pounds each of chuck steak and short rib, 6 different 2 litres of soda and 5 bags of dried chilli peppers for “Lance’s famous chilli”

Pretty soon, the three had made it back home, and on the ride home, Lance had contemplated his current situation with Pidge. They played video games together, they hung out a lot, found enough GAC in that fountain in the space mall to buy an entire game console, and lowkey saved each other’s lives once or twice. And thus, the third rule that Pidge had put in place for the two of them became more complicated than ever, since everything Pidge did was endearing to him. Pidge’s passion for the things she loved and her want to understand the things that she didn’t comprehend was incredibly charming to him and simply even thinking about Pidge made the clearly lovestruck Red Paladin fall in love with her more, as much as Lance is willing to deny it.

On the other side of the relationship, Pidge had already had feelings for Lance, but everything he did for her made those seemingly unrequited feelings that she thought he had seem less unrequited.

By the next day, ready or not, Lance and Pidge had to prove not to just Lance’s parents and siblings, but also Lance’s extended family and Pidge’s family that they were “dating”

_Alright._ Lance thought.

_It’s go time._


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The day that Lance had been dreading for the past two days has finally arrived. Will he and Pidge be able to successfully fool everyone into thinking that they're dating, or will true feelings complicate things further?

Lance looked in the mirror and took a deep breath as he got ready for the Christmas Party. Veronica and the others were already downstairs, ready to greet the rest of the family to arrive, but Lance was upstairs, still anxious about this whole fake dating thing. He finally gathered the courage to go downstairs. Certain that Rachel and Veronica still had a bunch of questions that he really can’t escape from anymore.

In between greeting their various uncles, aunts and extended family, the trio of Veronica, Rachel and Luis peppered Lance with questions

“So who confessed to who?” Luis asked first.

“Uh… I did. It was a spontaneous thing. Just… kinda spilled out.”  
  
“Oh, okay. Uh… Where was your first date?” Rachel asked next.

“Well… uh... being defenders of the universe didn’t really give us a lot of time to go on dates, but our first date was the space mall.”

“That exists?” Rachel asked.

“Yeah. We bought a game console there. We had to fish coins out of a fountain to have enough to buy it, but it was fun.”

“That’s really cute.” Veronica added. “What do you like most about her?”

“Uh…”

Suddenly, a voice called out to Lance, saving him from Veronica and Rachel’s pressing questions

“Yo, Lance! This is a nice house! Where’s the food? I’m starving!”  
  
“Oh hey, it’s Matt.” Lance told his sisters as he went to greet him.

“Hey, man. Uh… food’s over there by the kitchen.” Lance told Matt, pointing him towards the kitchen.

He turned his head to see Pidge near the entrance of his house,

Lance was immediately left stunned when he saw what Pidge was wearing for the dinner party.  He had imagined that Pidge looked good in a dress, but the red lipstick, high heels, and green dress that she was wearing made her look… stunning. After a few seconds, he found the wherewithal to walk over to her.

“Hey.” Was all he managed to say.

“Oh, hey, Lance...I overdressed, didn’t I?” She asked.

Lance almost didn’t answer because of how good she looked in the moment. “Uh… no! You look great! Uh… we should get to the dining room. Can’t keep mama waiting too long, right?” Lance said, redder than his Lion.  
  
Pidge turned her attention to the food as they walked towards the kitchen. Pidge took a plate and started to take various food from the table, walking away from Lance to greet the rest of Lance’s family.

“Quite a girl you got there.” Luis told him.

“Yeah...” Lance replied.

“You seem unsure of yourself. You haven’t eaten anything.”

“Uh... No, I’m fine. I’m just… thinking about...  stuff.”  
  
“Right… Okay.” Luis said as he grabbed the rest of the food he was going to eat and joined the rest of the family.

Lance snapped out of whatever trance he was in to the sound of Sylvio laughing as he played with Bae Bae. He couldn’t help but smile at the sight of his nephew having so much fun with Bae Bae.

Lance eventually grabbed his food and took a seat on the couch beside Pidge who was talking with Rachel.

“Hey, I was wondering where you were. Took you long enough to get your food, huh, sweetie?” Pidge told him, kissing him on the cheek, which caught him slightly off guard.

“Well, cutie, I was distracted.” Lance managed to reply.

Rachel couldn’t help but have a big gappy smile at the two of them interacting.

“These burgers are really good. Like _really good._ And the Mac and Cheese with the Chilli is probably the best thing i’ve ever eaten. Don’t tell Hunk that.” Pidge said, taking another bite of her burger.

“Thanks. I made those. And don’t worry. Hunk knows about the Mac and Cheese with Chilli, he won’t take any offense to that statement.”  
  
“This is the burger that beat Hunk in the burger making contest? And you came up with the Mac and Cheese with Chilli?”  
  
“Yup.”  
  
“You deserve some kind of medal, Lance. This stuff is amazing” Pidge said, cleaning off her plate.

“Thanks, cutie.” Lance said, kissing Pidge on the cheek, who didn’t seem to mind all that much..

“Is that an N64?” Pidge asked, pointing at the various game consoles by Lance’s TV.  
  
“Yeah. It was one of my favorite consoles, too, you know.”  
  
“What games do you have?”  
  
“Mario 64, Banjo Kazooie, Smash Bros, Donkey Kong, Pokemon Stadium, Goldeneye… Ocarina of Time…”  
  
Pidge’s face lit up like a Christmas Tree. “You have Ocarina of TIme?”  
  
“Pidgey, I have all the Zelda games. I even got the OG Gold cartridge.”

“Well, then what are you waiting for? Let’s play!”

“Alright, alright!”  
  
Lance ran down to the basement to grab Ocarina of TIme from the box it was in, before coming back up, and putting the cartridge into the console.

Lance and Pidge sat on the floor, closer to the TV since the controller wire couldn’t reach the sofa. Lance handed Pidge the controller, as she started up a new save. Lance’s neice and nephew also sat down to watch the two play, and Pidge was more than happy to explain to the both of them what she was doing in the game. Lance looked at the sight of Pidge interacting with his family and smiled. Pidge somehow got along with everyone at the party, and made convincing his family that she was in a relationship with Lance look easy.

His parents liked her. His siblings liked her. Hell, even Uncle Elliot liked her, and Uncle Elliot doesn’t like anyone.

It was almost like the universe was sending Lance a message.

Lance felt a tightness in his chest. _God, I’ve been such an idiot._ He thought to himself. In all the time they had spent together _pretending_ to be in love, leave it to Lance to fall in love for _real_. Lance had his fair share of beautiful women he’s fawned over. The thing with those women was that once Lance got to know who they were beyond just physical appearance, he’d become disinterested. But not with Pidge. Every little thing he learned about Pidge made him more interested in her by the minute.

Lance placed a hand on her shoulder as she was navigating the inside of the Deku tree. “Hey, can I talk to you? In private?”

They walked out of earshot of the rest of the family at the top of the stairs.

“What is it?” asked Pidge.

“I don’t know about this whole fake dating thing anymore...”  
  
“Why? Everything’s smooth sailing so far. I mean I’m getting along pretty well wi-”  
  
Lance cut her off. “Because I want to date you for real.”  
  
“Oh.”  
  
“Pidge, I’ve learned more about you in three days than I’ve learned about anybody i’ve ever fallen for in 19 years. Everything I learned about you endeared you to me. I’ve been denying it for a while but I am...hopelessly in love with you. I just… hope you feel the same way from getting to know me.”  
  
After the initial look of shock from this sudden, spontaneous confession subsided, a soft smile crept onto Pidge’s blushing face before planting a kiss on Lance’s lips. “I’ve had a crush on you since the day we met. Yes, you goofball, I feel the same way.”  

“I love you, Katie Holt.”

“I love you too, Lance McClain.”

They kissed once more and stared at each other, holding each other close for a few seconds before Lance broke the silence.

“I guess we broke a couple of those rules.” Lance said.  
  
“You’re the one who caught feelings.”  
  
“You just said you had a crush on me since the day we met. If anything, you caught feelings first.”  
  
“You can’t catch feelings if you already have them. Besides. It’s not like they apply anymore since we’re “dating for real” now.”

“Fair point. You broke the no kissing rule first, though.”

“You’re an idiot.”  
  
“I’m _your_ idiot, now.” Lance grinned, kissing her once more before they rejoined the christmas party.

 _Damn._ Lance thought.

_I guess Christmas came early for me._

 


End file.
